As NYLA is moving to a new fixed membership year, June 1st – May 31st, all joining members will be completing a 2024-2025 membership form to establish their new account and new renewal year. Everyone must join to establish their new member account even if your renewal is not up yet.
Members with previous memberships expiring after June 2024 will receive a prorate for the months they will not be receiving membership. All forms are being placed in a “pending” status for the office to review and provide any proration available. Please expect 2 – 4 business days for the office to review your form. Please note the organizational account included members will be sent a welcome email with their new username and instructions to create a password.
Anyone interested in re-establishing their account or joining as a new member please do so before May 31st, 2024! For information about how to join or renew personal and organizational membership visit nyla.org/membership or contact Lauren Hoyt, Director of Association Operations, membership@nyla.org.
Thank you all for your efforts to advocate for these funds! Despite our wishes for higher operating aid, this was still a successful advocacy year. Given that the Governor started higher than the previous year and both houses advocated for more than the Governor’s proposal, we should be proud of the work we have done to make the case for library systems and our member libraries. We are also grateful to the New York Library Association for their leadership in Albany.
Here is the final budget breakdown:
Library Operating Aid: $103.852 million
Library Construction Aid: $44 million
Library Materials Aid: $6.25/pupil
Inclusion of NOVELny: $3 million
Please take a moment to say thank you to your state legislators for their support.
There’s also $500,000 for 50% matching grants available to eligible entities participating in the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. As more information is made available, we will share accordingly.
The Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize, developed in partnership between the Gerald M. Kline Family Foundation and Library Journal was created in 2019 to recognize the public library as a vital community asset. When libraries, civic entities, organizations, and the people they serve become close partners, their communities thrive. One winning library will receive $250,000 in unfettered grant monies from the Gerald M. Kline Family Foundation. The winning library will also be profiled in the November issue of Library Journal and online. All US public libraries are eligible for the prize. Deadline is June 17, 2024. For more information and complete application details, click here.
Project Outcome is a free toolkit designed to help libraries understand and share the impact of essential library services and programs by providing simple surveys and an easy-to-use process for measuring and analyzing outcomes. Ensuring accessibility in library assessment is crucial to promoting inclusivity, allowing individuals with diverse abilities to fully engage with and benefit from library services and programs. Prioritizing accessibility enables libraries to gather more accurate and representative data, which facilitates informed decision making to better serve the entire community.
Join Mid-Hudson Library System Executive Director, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich for any of these informative sessions about library trustee roles and responsibilities. Each session is live, online from 5:00 to 6:30 pm.
• Trustee Essentials | Wednesday, June 5| REGISTEROR Thursday, September 5 | REGISTER Particularly for new board members, but open to all. Library board members looking for essential, basic information to increase their effectiveness in serving on a library board will benefit from attending this session. Attendees to these sessions will receive a coupon code that can be redeemed for a FREE print copy of the 2023 Edition of the Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State.
• Policies 101| Monday, September 23 | REGISTER This event will include a review of the Core Values of Librarianship, how those values translate to the work of the board, particularly in the area of policy making, and a specific look at the policies mandated by the Division of Library Development (DLD).
• Financial Planning | Monday, October 28 | REGISTER This session features a review the Office of the State Comptroller’s multi-year financial planning process and helpful data sources to help strengthen your library’s financial position and ability to meet community needs.
Stay tuned for information on in-person sessions being planned in partnership with county library associations for 2024.
Please note: all programs listed here are pre-approved to help trustees comply with the new Trustee Education Requirement from New York State. Prerecorded sessions are available for viewing 24/7 in the MHLS Training on Demand Platform.
Check out the Library Board Meetings chapter for all the latest updates on New York State’s Open Meetings Law and how it applies to public and association libraries. This includes clarification of what documents need to be publicly available on the library’s web site in advance of board meetings; what should be included in the minutes; and an explanation about how to comply with the law when it comes to remote participation at open meetings by trustees.
Trustee responsibilities are small in number but broad in scope. This monthly Bulletin feature is designed to point out sections that are new in the updated version of the Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State.
Purchase a bound copy of the Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State, 2023 edition from the Mid-Hudson Library System. Order Form
